Traveling monotower crane base

ABSTRACT

The base according to this invention for a traveling monotower crane consists only of lower and upper concrete beams, whether reinforced or prestressed, assembled to one another and to the tower and carrier trucks of the crane, by means of tie-rods extending vertically therethrough in order to impart a high strength to the assembly and improve the stability of the tower. The tie-rods extend preferably through guide tubes embedded in the concrete and the nuts provided at the ends of these tie-rods bear against the concrete faces through the medium of stressdistributing plates. The tower may preferably be mounted adjacent one end of the upper beams, in order to increase the useful radius of the crane and therefore its working efficiency measured in tons/meter (FIG. 7).

United States Patent U91 Durand [451 May 22, 1973 [541 TRAVELING MONOTOWER CRANE 2,496,850 2/1950 Bertrand ..52/223 x BASE 2,786,349 3 1957 Coff .52 223 3,429,092 2/1969 Perry et a1 ..52/648 [75] Inventor: Pierre Durand, Lyon, France [73] Assignee: Societe Anonyme Richier, Paris, Primary Examiner -Richa1'd Aegermr prance Assistant Examiner-Merle F. Maffei Att0rney-Waters, Roditi, Schwartz & Nissen [22] Filed: June 4, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 150,125 ABSTRACT The base according to this invention for a traveling 30 Foreign Application priority Data monotower crane consists only of lower and upper concrete beams, whether reinforced or prestressed, as- June 5, 1970 France ..702()649 sembled to one another and to the tower and carrier trucks of the crane, by means of tie-rods extending [52] US. Cl. ..212/1, 52/223, 52/227, vertically therethrough i Order to impart a high 212/49 strength to the assembly and improve the stability of [51] Ilft. Cl. ..B66c 5/00 the tower The i extend preferably through [58] Fleld of Search ..2l2/1,10,48, 49, g i tubes embedded in the concrete and the nuts 212/28 29; 52/648 227 provided at the ends of these tie-rods bear against the concrete faces through the medium of stress-distribut- [56] References Cited ing plates. The tower may preferablybe mounted ad- UNITED STATES PATENTS jacent one end of the upper beams, in order to increase the useful radius of the crane and therefore its 1 7,645 11/18 7 Lyons working efficiency measured in tons/meter (FIG. 7). 1,497,686 6/1924 Johnson ..2l2/49 1,765,664 6/1930 Flath ..52/227 6 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures Patented May 22, 1973 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Patented May 22, 1973 3,734,302

3 Sheets-Sheet 3 TRAVELING MONOTOWER CRANE BASE FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to improvements in the bases or carriages of traveling monotower cranes of the type consisting of a single tower on which the trolley and balance-weight booms are mounted for free slewing motion, the lower portion of the tower being rigid with a base equipped with carrier rollers on wheels assembled in rigid trucks adapted to travel along a track, generally a railway line.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART As a rule, these portable monotower cranes consist entirely of steel sections. The tower of the crane is mounted and secured to a traveling base also consisting of steel sections and so constructed that its longitudinal axis lies substantially in the vertical median plane of the track. Moreover, this base is connected to the tower by means of four braces in order to minimize the distortion caused by bending stress and moments transmitted by the tower. This base is generally ballasted with heavy concrete blocks in order to preserve the crane stability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is the primary object of the present invention to simplify the assembling of the tower base by reducing the number of its component elements while simplifying their connecting of coupling means.

According to this invention, the base consists only of concrete beams, whether reinforced or prestressed, assembled to one another, to the tower and to said trucks by means of tie-rods extending vertically therethrough, in order to constitute a high-strength frame structure.

With this arrangement, the crane base is particularly sturdy and distortion-free, so that its stability and the guiding of the assembly along the track are greatly improved.

Moreover, by replacing the conventional bases of relatively reduced weight with a concrete and therefore heavy base it is possible to reduce or even eliminate the central ballast.

Another advantage resulting from the use of concrete is that it permits of imparting a sufficient stiffness to the base beams without increasing the cost, so that the braces hitherto unavoidable in conventional constructions for avoiding the substantial distortion of the steel base can be dispensed with.

Preferably, tubes are embedded in the connecting areas of each concrete beam to permit the passage ofsaid tie-rods receiving at their projecting ends the nuts engaging the registering outer faces of the beams through the medium of metal plates.

Thus, the nut tightening efforts are transmitted to the beams through these plates having a bearing surface area considerably larger than said nuts, and any risk of damaging the beams is safely eliminated. Furthermore, the various beams are easily assembled by using a reduced number of connecting members.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The attached drawings illustrate diagrammatically by way of example two typical forms of embodiment of crane tower bases constructed according to this invention. In the drawings FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 are front-elevational, sideelevational and plan views, respectively, of a first form of embodiment of the tower base of this invention FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 are sections taken along the lines 4-4, 5-5 and 6-6, respectively, of FIGS. 1 and 9, showing on a larger scale a typical form of embodiment of the means interconnecting the beams, tower and carrier trucks FIGS. 7 and 8 are elevational and sectional views, respectively, showing on a smaller scale a modified form of embodiment of the base, the section being taken along the line 88 of FIG. 7

FIGS. 9, 10 and 11 are views similar to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, showing on a larger scale the base of FIGS. 7 and 8.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In a first typical form of embodiment of this invention, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the base 1 comprises a pair of lower transverse beams 2 and a pair of upper longitudinal beams 3, these four beams consisting of reinforced concrete.

The lower transverse beams 2 disposed perpendicu larly to the track 4 are connected adjacent their ends to trucks 5 equipped with heavy-duty rollers on wheels 6. They are furthermore connected to the pair of upper beams 3 disposed parallel to and on either side of the longitudinal center line of said track 4. The aforesaid pair of longitudinal beams 3 carry with their central portions the lower portion of the crane tower 7 to which they are rigidly connected by means shown more in detail in FIG. 4.

Each frame element of tower 7 is connected to the corresponding concrete beam 3 by means of tie-rods 8 extending through a set of tubes 9 embedded in the beam 3; the projecting ends of these tie-rods are provided with nuts 10, 12 bearing on the one hand against a metal plate 13 rigid with the relevant frame element 7a of tower 7 and on the other hand against a bearingplate 14 interposed between the nut and the lower face of said beam 3. As shown in in the same figure together with FIGS. 3 and 5, said beams 3 and 2 have crosssections of side-lengths several times as long as the transverse (horizontal) dimensions of said frame elements 7a. As a result, the mass and weight of the base easily supports a tall tower 7 with a heavy load on its trolley boom, in stably balanced, vertical position of the tower.

With this arrangement, the tower 7 is perfectly and safely connected to the base 1 and the tie-rods 8 are only tension stressed. Moreover, due to the presence of the bearing plates 13 and 14, the tightening efforts of nuts 10 and 12 are distributed throughout the surface area of these plates, thus preventing considerable local stresses from damaging the concrete beams.

As shown in FIG. 5 the longitudinal beams 3 are also connected to the transverse beams 2 by means of other tie-rods 15 extending with a sufficient clearance through the tubular members 16 and 17 embedded in each beams these tie-rods 15 are provided with nuts 18 and 19 bearing against plates 20 and 22 engaging the ones the upper faces of beams 3 and the others the lower faces of beams 2.

Finally, as illustrated in FIG. 6, each beam 2 is connected to the corresponding trucks 5 through tie-rods 23 extending with a sufficient clearance through tubular members 24 embedded in said beam and comprising nuts 25 and 26 engaging on the one hand a plate 27 and on the other hand a plate 28 rigid with each truck frame.

The stiffness of the various means thus implemented is so determined that all conventional braces and horizontal windbraces can safely be dispensed with. Moreover, due to their considerably mass, these beams permit in general of eliminating any ballast. Of course, if their mass is reckoned as too low for warranting a reliable crane stability, counterweight bars C1, C2, C3, C4, may be added and disposed transversely on the pair of longitudinal beams 3, as shown in dash-and-dot lines in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

It is well known in the art that if a crane of this character is disposed very close to a building under construction, the radius of action of the maximum permissible load that can be hoisted by the crane is reduced by a value corresponding to the distance between the vertical longitudinal axis of tower 7 and the edge of its base 1 registering with or adjacent to the planned construction 31, as designated by the reference letter L in FIG. 2; also see FIG. 7.

To avoid this inconvenience, it is only necessary to position the lower end of the tower on the edge of the base nearest to the building being constructed, i.e. to off-set said tower in relation to its supporting base, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

In this exemplary form of embodiment the tower 7 is even somewhat overhung in relation to the base 30, and therefore in relation to the track 4 along which it can travel. Of course, to balance the want of stability resulting from the off-setting of the crane weight in relation to its base, the ballast 32 is off-set in a direction opposite to the tower off-setting and is therefore supported near the edge opposite to that supporting the tower.

In this case, only the base and the ballast are calculated to permit the crane operation according to its operating characteristics, for example in tons/meter defined by taking as the origin of the range the longitudinal median axis of the track. The other elements of the crane are determined as in conventional crane construction according to the crane characteristics of which the radius is calculated from the vertical axis of the tower as the origin. The lower part 7a of the'tower is connected to the towers upper part 7b, which carries the trolley and balance weight booms, by pivot means 70 for this upper part.

According to a preferred form of embodiment of this invention, the lower end of tower 7 is located at one of the base corners and projects therefrom by about 0.4 meter in relation to the vertical swivel axis of the relevant truck 5, so that the tower can be brought to the same extent near the two vertical walls 29 of a reentrant corner 29 of an angle or L-shaped building such as 31.

Construction regulations now in force prescribe a minimum free distance or passage of 0.6 meter or 2 feet between the tower 7 and the registering vertical wall 29 of the construction. Therefore, the arrangement according to the present invention permits of installing the first rail of track 4 at a distance of about 1 meter from said wall.

To obtain this particular arrangement and according to a modified form of embodiment of this invention the base 30 comprises a pair of transverse beams 2 and a pair of longitudinal beams 3 secured to said transverse beams 2 so as to be parallel to, and on either side of, the rail of track 4 which is nearest to the wall 29 of the building 31 to be constructed. Moreover, as shown more particularly in FIG. 11, the lower portion of tower 7 is secured to the ends of the aforesaid pair of longitudinal beams 3 in such a way that its vertical axis merges into that of the corresponding or underlying truck 5, i.e. the truck nearest to the re-entrant corner of the L- shaped building 31.

Of course, these various elements are interconnected by the same means as those described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6.

The ballast or balance weight 32 disposed at the corner opposite to that occupied by the tower 7 consists of longitudinal beams 35 and transverse beams 36.

With this arrangement the resultant of the crane weight is constantly applied substantially centrally of the base 30 as shown by the point of application 37 in FIG. 1 1. In addition, the bearing point of the maximum load that can be carried by the crane is shifted towards the building 31 under construction by a value equal to the shifting of the longitudinal or median vertical axis of this tower in relation to the base axis.

Thus, in a practical example, assuming a squaresectioned tower having a length of 1.6 meters per side and shifted to project by 0.4 meter from one rail of a S-meters track, the span increment or gain is (5/2) (1.6/2) 0.4 2.1 meters.

In the case of a crane having a maximum or safe load of 12 tons, this range increment provides a gain in efficiency corresponding to 12 tons X 2.1 meters 25.2 tons/meters.

Under these conditions it is clear that the arrangement according to the present invention is extremely advantageous since it permits, without changing the crane construction above the base, to increase considerably the useful range or working radius of the crane.

Although the above description refers to two different forms of embodiment, it will readily occur to those skilled in the art that various details and proportions may be changed in the practical application of this invention without however departing from the basic principles thereof as set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim as new is 1. Base for a travelling tower crane for use on a construction site, said crane being of the type wherein a single perpendicular tower is used which has upstanding elements to form its frame and has trolley and balance weight booms mounted on top of its frame for free slewing motion, said base comprising: four rigid trucks, each having carrier rollers; tracks for said rollers, disposed along said construction site; a system of four concrete beams, each having a cross-section larger than the horizontal dimensions of said upstanding elements, a first pair of said concrete beams extending along the tracks and another pair extending across the tracks, one of said pairs being supported by the other and the other being supported by said trucks; three sets of tie rod means for securing together, respectively, said trucks and other pair of concrete beams, said one and other pair of concrete beams, and the lower portion of said tower and said one pair of concrete beams, with the perpendicular center line of said tower being located adjacent the center of one of said four trucks.

2. Base according to claim 1 wherein said center line of the tower passes equidistantly between the concrete beams of said one pair.

mensions of said frame elements; and tie rod means extending vertically through said concrete beams for assembling said system of concrete beams with the base of said tower and with the tops of said trucks as a strong and substantially distortiomfree structure.

5. Base according to claim 4, wherein said concrete beams are reinforced.

6. Base according to claim 4 wherein said concrete beams are prestressed. 

1. Base for a travelling tower crane for use on a construction site, said crane being of the type wherein a single perpendicular tower is used which has upstanding elements to form its frame and has trolley and balance weight booms mounted on top of its frame for free slewing motion, said base comprising: four rigid trucks, each having carrier rollers; tracks for said rollers, disposed along said construction site; a system of four concrete beams, each having a cross-section larger than the horizontal dimensions of said upstanding elements, a first pair of said concrete beams extending along the tracks and another pair extending across the tracks, one of said pairs being supported by the other and the other being supported by said trucks; three sets of tie rod means for securing together, respectively, said trucks and other pair of concrete beams, said one and other pair of concrete beams, and the lower portion of said tower and said one pair of concrete beams, with the perpendicular center line of said tower being located adjacent the center of one of said four trucks.
 2. Base according to claim 1 wherein said center line of the tower passes equidistantly between the concrete beams of said one pair.
 3. Base according to claim 2 wherein said center line of the tower passes through one of said other concrete beams.
 4. Base for a travelling crane of the type wherein a single tower is formed substantially of upstanding frame elements and has trolley and balance weight booms mounted thereon for free slewing motion, said base comprising: a system of rigid trucks, each having carrier rollers for travel along a track; a system of concrete beams, each having a cross-section of side lengths several times as long as the transverse (horizontal) dimensions of said frame elements; and tie rod means extending vertically through said concrete beams for assembling said system of concrete beams with the base of said tower and with the tops of said trucks as a strong and substantially distortion-free structure.
 5. Base according to claim 4, wherein said concrete beams are reinforced.
 6. Base according to claim 4 wherein said concrete beams are prestressed. 